Staying in Touch

College is an exciting time in which you get to meet a ton of new people and do a lot of networking.  However, you need to stay grounded and keep in touch with your roots.

Obviously, you should be contacting your parents often.  You should at least make an effort to send them a text once a week, even if it’s a simple “thinking of home” it will mean a lot to them.  No matter what your parents say, they will miss you a lot.  They will want to know what you’re up to, whether you are 30 minutes away, or 3 hours.  Parents are going to be concerned for your safety every time the news reports of something bad (weather or crime related) anywhere near your school.  They will want to know that you’re doing well and that you still care and still want them to be in your life.

If you have younger siblings, depending on how young, they will want to hear from you every now and again as well.  If your siblings are close in age, and you’re close with them like I am to my sister, you leaving is going to be an adjustment.  There will be one less bed slept in every night, one less seat filled at the dinner table, one less load of laundry to be done.  Your siblings will miss you and they will be happy every time you contact them.

If you are in a relationship, time apart will be hard.  It’s not going to be easy, especially if you go to the same high school.  You will go from getting to see your significant other whenever you want, to only on holidays, breaks, or times that one of you makes the trip to the other.  In our modern day world, keeping in contact will not be a difficult task.  You can text and call each other.  You can videochat, snapchat, etc.  However, the separation will take a toll.  Before technology, people had to write letters to their significant other when they missed them, and that’s not such an outdated idea.  Don’t be afraid to send a little note in the mail, it will mean a lot more.  Being apart will make your time together more special, though.

Even though you will make plenty of new friends, don’t forget about your old ones.  Everyone will have completely new lives, but making time to text your hometown friends shouldn’t be a taxing thing to do.  You’re going to miss them, especially at first.  You should make plans to meet up during holidays and breaks just to catch up.  In your new crazy and fast paced life, it’s important to remember where you came from and all of the people that helped mold you into the person that you are today.

Declining an Acceptance…

Yes you read that correctly, declining an acceptance.  You got into your first choice, congratulations!  Now you need to tell those other schools that you got into that you won’t be attending their schools.  This can be very awkward, but it has to be done.  You may have been tucking the letters and invites to their open houses away or even throwing them out, but you need to be upfront with the school and let them know that you will not be attending.

There are a couple ways that you can do this, one way would be to call the admissions office and tell them that you have chosen another school.  You could also send them a polite email stating that you will be going elsewhere.  No matter how you handle things, they will ask you to explain your decision and to tell them where you will be attending.  Obviously, be honest with them.  If you think your school has better academics, tell them.  If you think that your school has a better campus, tell them.  You’re not trying to impress them anymore, just be honest.  It’s very awkward and uncomfortable, but thank them for their interest in you and move on.  You’re going to a school that you picked out for yourself.

Procrastination

Senior year makes it so easy to fall into the habit of procrastination.  You’ll get to it eventually.  However, in college procrastination is about as deadly as rat poison.  If you procrastinate in college, you will be up all night scrambling to finish your 30 page English paper and putting the finishing touches on that project that is due in your 8 A.M.  You will need about 4 times the amount of coffee you usually drink and you can forget about learning anything at all the next day.

There is really no point in waiting until the last minute to do all of your work when you have ample amount of time to do it.  Professors will tell you about due dates in advanced, they won’t spring things on you last minute.  Use your planner to plan out these projects and papers.  Mark out small amounts of time every day to work on them and spread it out over a period of time.  Make sure in these plans that you give yourselves a day off from all of the work so that you don’t burn yourself out. Give yourself enough time to get work done.  If you can’t work in your room, go to the library.  If you need help, contact your professor and ask them questions when you need to.  Go to the writing labs and get someone to read over your paper or look over your project for any detail that you may have missed.

After every finished product, reward yourself.  Watch that movie you wanted to watch, go out for dinner at your favorite restaurant, go out with your friends, do something that will make you happy so that you feel great about finishing your assignment early and then you will want to do it again.

If you do find yourself in a situation where time really go away from you, do not panic, that would be the worst thing to do.  Yes, you will have to pull an all-nighter to finish, but there are tactics that you can use to help you get through it.  You should drink some coffee and plug in your lap top, sit back and get started on that essay.  Map out your time throughout the night, after you finish a portion of the assignment, take a break.  Pour some more coffee, take a shower, take a power nap, eat some brain food, etc.  Do this periodically throughout the night so that you can finish the assignment and stay motivated while doing so.

Be Ready to Plan Your Life

Start now, get a day planner and start using it everyday.  You may think that this will be a waste of money, but you will thank me later.  In college you don’t have teachers who put the homework online or give you an online calendar of projects and tests.  You won’t have announcements every morning reminding you of upcoming events and you won’t have your parents reminding you of when you work next and what your hours will be.  You need to be prepared to keep track of everything yourself, and practice makes perfect.  Get in the habit of writing out all of your assignments and writing out due dates, tests, and when your clubs meet.  Add in what days you work, and any other fun activities that you may have planned.

Keep this thing organized and it will be your lifeline.  Mark off the days that you’ve completed and cross off the tasks that are finished.

Starting this practice now will help you later when you have to actually manage your time and keep your schedule under control.  You’ll be able to balance classes with working and any clubs that you’re in and anything you want to do that’s outside of all of that.  This is a very key thing that as a young adult you will need for your entire college career.

Roommates…

Yes roommates.  One of the scariest things about college.

–“Will they like me?”  “Will I like them?”  “What if they’re mean?”  “What if I can’t stand them?”  “I wish I knew who it was already.”

There are many ways to go about thinking about who this person you will be living with is, but the reality of the situation is that they are just as afraid as you are.

If you’re like me and you just have to know things before so that you can plan, social media will be your best friend.  Many colleges have “Class of 2018” facebook groups in which everyone who has decided on their school will post things about finding roommates and things that they like to do.  Or you could go through the “[Insert School] Class of 2018” hashtag on twitter or instagram to find people who are also attending your school and get to know them.  My roommate and I connected through social media.  Once you find someone that you get to know better and get along with, it’s sort of like an interview process to decide if you want to really room together, but eventually once everything checks out, you’ll have a roommate that you know you’ll get along with.

You could also just fill out the housing contract and have the school randomly match you up with someone.  Once you get randomly set up with another person you should get in contact with them and meet in person over lunch, or coffee, whatever you prefer, and talk and get to know each other.  Meeting before move-in day and having background information will help to build a better relationship with your roomie.  You wouldn’t want the first time you meet to be on move-in day, that is extremely awkward.

In the worst case scenario that you and your roommate just don’t get along at all, you’re not stuck with them for all four years (or however long you stay at college).  You will make tons of friends and you will hang out with them more than your roommate, unless you and your roommate get along really well, and sophomore year you can room with your new friends.  Plus, now you have the experience of dealing with people you don’t necessarily like in a mature manner.

If you still aren’t sure…

If you still have no idea which school to choose, don’t fret!  Lots of schools have weekends where they will invite prospective students to come stay at the campus with current students and explore the school a little bit more.  At these events you should be prepared with questions that you have for the students about the school and their experiences thus far.  Specifically make sure that you speak with current freshman, as they will be able to provide the best information on what it is like being new to the school.  You definitely want to learn the rules and really get a feel for what the school is like on a daily basis.

Use the weekend on campus to find all of the buildings you might be in for your area of study, where the gym is, where the fields are, where you eat, and anything else that might interest you.  Let your host students show you where they and their friends like to go to hang out, you’ll be able to learn a lot about where all of the fun stuff happens on campus.  If there is a town off campus ask your hosts if you can go explore that for a little.  Getting to know the area around the school may help you make your decision on whether or not this is the right school for you.

Learn about campus security and figure out if the campus feels safe at night or not.  If you don’t feel safe, you probably shouldn’t choose to go to that specific school.

You will also get the chance to talk with professors and faculty.  This is a great opportunity to see what kinds of things that they expect and learn about the school’s teaching philosophy.  Talk to students who are in your intended area of study for information on this as well.

And lastly, but also very important, see if you like the food.  This may seem trivial, however, if you can’t eat the food at school the freshman 15 will be something that you wish you had.  It’d be very unhealthy to skip meals because you don’t like the food and very expensive to cook in your dorm or go out all the time.

These weekends have so much information packed tight into a little period of time and will really help you to decide on a school, so it would be in your best interest to check them out.